My finger traced over the hammer rune, and I memorized the number. Might not be a bad thing having someone like Owen Grayson owe me a favor. Besides, Finnegan Lane, my foster brother and general partner in crime, would kill me if I turned him down. “All right.”

We locked gazes. Cool, calculating, and shrewd, on both sides. Grayson tipped his head at me. I did the same, and we had an agreement.

Owen turned to the two women. “Come on, girls. Time to go.”

He held the door open for them, and they headed outside.

Owen Grayson paused, looking over his shoulder.

The businessman stared at me a moment more before stepping out into the dark night.

———

I locked the front door behind the three of them and turned the sign over to Closed. It was barely after seven, but we weren’t going to have any more customers tonight.

This close to Southtown, people could sniff out violence better than bloodhounds. Besides, I didn’t feel like mopping up Jake McAllister’s blood just yet.

I went into the back and said my good nights to Sophia.

The Goth dwarf grunted, gathered up her glass Mason jars full of baked beans, and headed out the back door to go home to her sister, Jo-Jo. After I made sure the stoves, french fryer, and lights were off, I followed her out into the alley that ran behind the restaurant.

I stood in the ink-black shadows next to one of the Dumpsters, looking, listening, searching. But nothing moved in the cold, quiet night, not even the rats and alley cats searching for garbage. Still, I brushed my fingers against the hard brick of the restaurant, using my elemental magic to listen to the stone.

The brick’s slow murmur was one of muted, clogged contentment—just the way the stomachs and arteries of the Pork Pit’s customers felt after eating a hot, thick, juicy barbecue sandwich. Over time, emotions, feelings, and actions sink into the earth and especially stone, where they can linger indefinitely until something else, some other action, comes along to add to, change, or overpower them. My elemental Stone magic let me sense these vibrations, analyze, interpret, and even tap into them if I wanted to. But the brief bit of violence that had happened earlier tonight hadn’t lasted long enough or been brutal enough for the brick to permanently pick up its vibrations. Good.